Senyavin, Dmitry Nikolaevich

Born in the estate of Komlevo, Borovsky district, Kaluga province . From the noble family of the Senyavins , known for its traditions of service in the Navy. The son of retired Prime Minister Nikolai Fedorovich Senyavin, who served as an adjutant to his cousin Alexei Naumovich Senyavin for some time.

Career start

In 1773, at the age of 10, he was enlisted in the Naval Cadet Corps ( St. Petersburg ), receiving four years later, in 1777, the title of midshipman . Then, already during the period of “real” studies, he participated in two training voyages along the Baltic Sea . On May 1, 1780, after passing the exams, he received the rank of midshipman and assignment to the ship Prince Vladimir.

In 1780-1781 he was part of the Russian squadron, which approached the shores of Portugal to assist in maintaining armed neutrality during the US War of Independence .

In 1782 he began serving in the Azov military flotilla . Initially served on the Khotin corvette, in 1783 he received the rank of lieutenant and the position of flag officer under Rear Admiral F.F. Mekenzi . He took part in the management of the construction of the Akhtiar port in Sevastopol . Since 1786, he commanded the “Karabut” packet boat, walking between Sevastopol and Constantinople . One of the first important tasks that he successfully completed was the transportation of the diplomatic mail of the Russian Embassy in Constantinople.

When the Russo-Turkish War began in 1787, he had the rank of captain-lieutenant . In December of the same year he received the Order of St. George of the 4th degree for this operation. After the victory near Ochakov, he was sent to St. Petersburg to personally report to Empress Catherine II about the victory. He was known for his extremely disrespectful attitude to Commander Fyodor Ushakov , for the conflict with which he even once ended up in a punishment cell with the threat of demotion.

In the second period of the war he received the rank of captain of the 2nd rank and the post of adjutant under Prince Grigory Potemkin . Later, he first commanded the warship Martyr Leonty , then the ships St. Vladimir ”and“ Navarchy ”. He participated in the battle at Cape Kaliakriya on July 31, 1791, which ended in the defeat of the Ottoman fleet, and in the battle of Varna .

Napoleonic Wars

By the time the Second Coalition War began against France , already having the rank of captain of the 1st rank , he was appointed commander of the 72-gun battleship St. Peter , which was part of the squadron of F. F. Ushakov during his campaign in the Mediterranean Sea . He headed the attack on the fortress of St. Mavra ( Lefkada Islands) on November 2, 1798, which ended with its successful capture during the campaign to occupy the Ionian Islands , and participated in the siege of Corfu on February 20, 1799.

In 1800, when the military campaign was completed, he was appointed to the post of commander of the Kherson port, three years later he moved to the same post in the Sevastopol port. In 1804 he received the rank of Rear Admiral and until 1805 he held the position of Fleet Chief in Reval .

Mediterranean Campaign

In 1805 he received the rank of vice admiral . September 10, 1805 was appointed commander of the Russian squadron, consisting of six ships, which sailed from Kronstadt and was sent to the Mediterranean Sea to counter the French fleet. On January 18, 1806, Senyavin arrived on the island of Corfu, where he led all the Russian land and naval forces in the Mediterranean. He saw with his main goals the preservation of the liberated Ionian Islands as the main base of the Russian fleet in the region and the elimination of the threat posed by the capture of Greece by Napoleon I. Under his leadership, several offensive operations were planned and carried out on the Adriatic ( Second Archipelago Expedition ), primarily in Montenegro and Dalmatia . Together with Stepan Sankovsky, Senyavin began preparations for the next military operation ^[1] and, with the support of the Montenegrin militia , took the fortress of Bocca di Cattaro on March 2 (14), 1806 , and in early June drove the French out of Breno ; at the end of the summer of that year, he attempted to take Ragusa , which ended in failure, but on September 19, 1806 established control over Castelnuovo .

After the start of the next Russo-Turkish War in 1806, which followed the severance of relations between Russia and Porta, in February 1807 sent a squadron of eight battleships and one frigate to the Aegean Sea , prudently leaving a garrison for the possible defense of Corfu; in March of the same year, he successfully established the blockade of the Dardanelles , and already on March 10, troops under his command captured the island of Tenedos , using it as a base for establishing the blockade of Constantinople. Senyavin had - contrary to his expectations - to fight the Turks in the Aegean alone, as the British admiral John Duckworth refused to join Senyavin with his own forces, instead going to Alexandria .

On May 10-11, 1807, in the battle of the Dardanelles, he won a major victory over the Ottoman fleet, which, on the orders of Sultan Mustafa IV , who succeeded Selim III on the throne, broke through the blockade of Constantinople, where riots had already begun due to food shortages. On June 19, 1807, Senyavin again defeated the Turks in the Athos battle , although his opponent had a significant numerical advantage. In the battle of Athos, Senyavin successfully used a new combat technique for that time - he concentrated his two ships against each of the Turkish flagships , the location of which was determined by him as the most important part of the battlefield. This victory put an end to the Ottoman army’s attempts to unlock its capital and allowed the Russian fleet to establish control over the entire Aegean region until the end of the war, eventually forcing the Sultan to soon sign the Slobodzee ceasefire with Russia on August 12, 1807.

Lisbon Incident

Senyavin won a brilliant victory over the Turks. But the conclusion of the Tilsit peace did not allow the Russian squadron to use the results of their victory. On August 22, 1807, Senyavin received an order to cease hostilities and immediately transfer the Ionian and Dalmatian islands and the province of Cattaro to France , and Tenedos to Turkey and return to Russia.

In pursuance of this order, Senyavin sent the Black Sea Fleet vessels at his disposal (5 ships, 4 frigates, 4 corvettes and 4 brig) and 20 prize ships under the command of Captain-Commander Saltanov to Sevastopol . The squadron of captain-commander Baratynsky , who was in Venice , was ordered to go to the Baltic . On September 19, 1807, the Senyavin squadron, including ten ships and three frigates, left Corfu to travel to Russia. Senyavin was warned of the possibility of war with England and the need to avoid meetings with her fleet in this regard.

On October 28, 1807, a Russian squadron came to Lisbon . It is unlikely that any of the Russian admirals had to be in such a difficult and dangerous situation as Senyavin found himself in during the Lisbon “sitting”. On October 30, 1807, an English squadron blocked Lisbon from the sea. Lisbon itself was occupied by French troops on November 18, 1807 under the command of General Junot . Senyavin was between two fires. Exceptional diplomatic skill was required to preserve the Russian squadron. Napoleon sought to use Russian ships to fight against England. Russian Tsar Alexander I sent a decree to Senyavin, in which he was asked to fulfill all the instructions, "which will be sent from His Majesty Emperor Napoleon." Senyavin, extremely hostile to the Tilsit world and to the "friendship" of Russia with Napoleon, managed to save the Russian squadron from encroachment by Napoleon.

On August 18, 1808, British troops entered Lisbon. The English admiral Cotton , realizing that the Russian squadron would not go in for surrender, was forced to negotiate and, on August 23, 1808, sign a special convention with Senyavin. According to this convention, the Russian squadron was to go to England and stay there until the conclusion of peace between England and Russia, and then return to Russia. On August 31, 1808, the Senyavin squadron under the Russian flag left Lisbon and on September 27, 1808 arrived at the Portsmouth raid.

On August 5, 1809, the Russian teams left Portsmouth and on September 9, 1809 arrived in Riga . ^[2]

Opal

Upon returning to St. Petersburg, Senyavin fell into disgrace and was actually demoted: for three years he served as former commander of the Revelsk flotilla. Meanwhile, Russia was heading for a new war with Napoleon and a new alliance with England.

During the Patriotic War of 1812, the Revel squadron of Senyavin carried patrol service off the coast of England. Considering this to be inaction, the naval commander wrote a report to the Minister of War with a request to transfer him to "that kind of service, with the rank that my men would be able to carry." But his appeal remained unanswered: Alexander I did not forgive him Lisbon arbitrariness. In 1813, Dmitry Nikolaevich was fired. He was only given a half pension, which created material difficulties for the large Senyavin family, at times she had nothing to live on. ^[3]

Return

Only in 1825, when Nicholas I ascended the throne, did the naval commander return to service. First, the king appointed him as his adjutant general , and then commander of the Baltic Fleet . In 1826, Senyavin was promoted to admiral . The following year, in connection with the victory of the Russian-Anglo-French squadron over the Turkish-Egyptian fleet in the Navarino battle, he was awarded diamond signs for the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky . Dmitry Nikolayevich died on April 5, 1831, was seriously ill a year earlier. His funeral was solemn, Nicholas I himself gave him the last honors, commanding the honorary escort of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment . ^[3]

It rests in the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.

Ranks

• Cadet (02.1773) ^[4] .
• Midshipman (11.1777).
• Adjutant General (12/25/1825 ^[5] , the first of the sailors).

Military ranks

• Michman (1780).
• Lieutenant (01/01/1783).
• Captain-lieutenant (05.16.1787).
• Captain of the 2nd rank (07.1791).
• Captain 1st rank (01/01/1796).
• Major General (1799).
• Rear Admiral (09.1803).
• Vice Admiral (08.16.1805).
• Admiral (08.22.1826).

• A golden snuffbox decorated with diamonds with 200 pieces of gold in it (1788).
• Order of St. George 4 tbsp. (12/31/1788).
• Order of St. Vladimir 4 tbsp. with a bow (06/30/1789, the first of those awarded with a bow).
• Order of St. Anne 2 tbsp. (01/08/1799, for the capture of the island of St. Moors).
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (09/18/807).
• Diamond signs to the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (02.10.1827).

Named after D. N. Senyavin:

• Senyavin Island Archipelago in the Eastern Caroline Islands of the Pacific
• Cape in the Bristol Bay of the Bering Sea
• Strait off the island of Arakamchechen , Chukotka
• Cape on the island of Sakhalin
• Peninsula and cape in Kamchatka
• Streets in Sevastopol , Makhachkala , Nizhny Novgorod , Nakhodka , Mariupol
• Avenue in Kherson
• St. Petersburg Marine Technical College

In 1892, the coastal defense battleship Admiral Senyavin was launched.

In 1954, the cruiser (project 68 bis) with the same name joined the Pacific Fleet.

In Veliky Novgorod, on the Monument "1000th Anniversary of Russia" among 129 figures of the most outstanding personalities in Russian history (for 1862) there is a figure of D. N. Senyavin.

On October 8, 2013, a monument was opened to Admiral D.N. Senyavin in Borovsk, Kaluga Region. Sculptor Mikhail Pereyaslavets.

On May 8, 2014, a monument to Admiral Senyavin was unveiled in Sevastopol (sculptor Mikhail Pereyaslavets ). Monument in the city of Borovsk, Kaluga region.

• Admiral Ushakov (1953)

• A. Artsimovich . D.N. Senyavin. - St. Petersburg, 1855.
• Bantysh-Kamensky N.N. Senyavin. // library to read . - 1838. - T. XXXI.
• Goncharov V. Admiral Senyavin: Biogr. essay with the application notes adm. D.N. Senyavin. - M.-L .: Voenmorizdat, 1945 .-- 142 p.: Ill.
• Davydov Yu. V. Senyavin. - M.: Young Guard, 1972.- 253 p.: Ill., Portr.
• Divin V., Fokeev K. Admiral D.N. Senyavin. - M .: Naval publishing house of the Naval Ministry of the USSR, 1952. - 118 p.
• Lebedev A.A. Dardanelles and Athos: Behind the Scenes of Famous Victories // Gangut. - 2013. - No. 77 - 78.
• Lebedev A.A. What is this “Sea Brotherhood” when they do not follow orders? // Homeland. - 2016. - No. 9
• Skritsky N.V. Admiral Senyavin. - M .: Veche, 2013 .-- 336 p. - (Military archive). - 2000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-4444-0406-5 .
• Snegiryov V.A. Admiral Senyavin. - M.: Gospolitizdat, 1945 .-- 64 p.
• Shapiro A. L. Admiral D.N. Senyavin. - M.: Military Publishing, 1958.- 373 p.

• Senyavin, Dmitry Nikolaevich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Senyavin expedition